Flashback: La Tech's old 54-game winning streak

[alexrgct]

in 1979-80, La Tech finished its season 40-5 with losses to ODU and Rutgers in the AIAW tourney.

And then the Lady Techsters rattled off 54 games in a row.

In 1980-81, La Tech enjoyed a perfect 34-0 season, including a national championship. In 1981-82, La Tech won the first 20 games of the season before falling to ODU again. However, they would continue to win every game left in the season, including the inaugural NCAA Tourney. In other words, the streak of 54 games in row accounted for part of two of La Tech's three NCs (1981, 1982, 1988).

During that streak, La Tech was mostly quite dominant, though there were at least three single-digit MOV wins. Not only has UConn enjoyed a 47-game winning streak with no MOV lower than 11 points (between 2013 and 2014), but its current streak hasn't dipped below 10 points, either.

Oh yeah, that's right: UConn is sitting on a 53-game streak right now. Geno and Company first coached his program to a 55-game streak in 2003, and the streak, of course, made it all the way to 70 before the BET upset loss to Villanova. UConn later began yet another streak and won its 71st in a row in the 2010 BET semis before stretching that streak to the historic 90 games.

As I've brought up several times, this is now the third time UConn is poised to pass the Lady Techsters of old and do so in style. La Tech will "only" have the fourth-longest streak in WCBB history, as no one has come close to UConn's 90- and 70-game streaks, nor has anyone touched their single-game MOV in its current 53-game (and counting) streak.

Finally, UConn's aforementioned 47-game streak- from the 6-0 2013 tourney run with no MOV below 18 points to the dominant 2013-14 40-0 season with no MOV below 11 to the easy win over UC-Davis in 2014-15 before the shocking OT loss to Stanford in Game 2 of that season- is already the fifth-longest streak in WCBB history. So the top five streaks will be 90, 70, 55 and counting, 54, and 47, of which four are UConn's.

Seriously, how great a program is UConn WBB? Geno coaches his kids to something beautiful and perfect. The only thing keeping him from doing it again doesn't exist. Nothing is fully guaranteed, but the boast that the Husky WBB program owns four of the top five winning streaks in the sport's history is even more monumental than the 90-game streak in itself. And it's clear La Tech didn't even accomplish in 1980-82 what UConn is achieving now.

Embrace and applaud these kids Wednesday and especially Saturday; to say that's deserved would be a trite understatement...

 

[bballnut90]

in 1979-80, La Tech finished its season 40-5 with losses to ODU and Rutgers in the AIAW tourney.

And then the Lady Techsters rattled off 54 games in a row.

In 1980-81, La Tech enjoyed a perfect 34-0 season, including a national championship. In 1981-82, La Tech won the first 20 games of the season before falling to ODU again. However, they would continue to win every game left in the season, including the inaugural NCAA Tourney. In other words, the streak of 54 games in row accounted for part of two of La Tech's three NCs (1981, 1982, 1988).

During that streak, La Tech was mostly quite dominant, though there were at least three single-digit MOV wins. Not only has UConn enjoyed a 47-game winning streak with no MOV lower than 11 points (between 2013 and 2014), but its current streak hasn't dipped below 10 points, either.

Oh yeah, that's right: UConn is sitting on a 53-game streak right now. Geno and Company first coached his program to a 55-game streak in 2003, and the streak, of course, made it all the way to 70 before the BET upset loss to Villanova. UConn later began yet another streak and won its 71st in a row in the 2010 BET semis before stretching that streak to the historic 90 games.

As I've brought up several times, this is now the third time UConn is poised to pass the Lady Techsters of old and do so in style. La Tech will "only" have the fourth-longest streak in WCBB history, as no one has come close to UConn's 90- and 70-game streaks, nor has anyone touched their single-game MOV in its current 53-game (and counting) streak.

Finally, UConn's aforementioned 47-game streak- from the 6-0 2013 tourney run with no MOV below 18 points to the dominant 2013-14 40-0 season with no MOV below 11 to the easy win over UC-Davis in 2014-15 before the shocking OT loss to Stanford in Game 2 of that season- is already the fifth-longest streak in WCBB history. So the top five streaks will be 90, 70, 55 and counting, 54, and 47, of which four are UConn's.

Seriously, how great a program is UConn WBB? Geno coaches his kids to something beautiful and perfect. The only thing keeping him from doing it again doesn't exist. Nothing is fully guaranteed, but the boast that the Husky WBB program owns four of the top five winning streaks in the sport's history is even more monumental than the 90-game streak in itself. And it's clear La Tech didn't even accomplish in 1980-82 what UConn is achieving now.

Embrace and applaud these kids Wednesday and especially Saturday; to say that's deserved would be a trite understatement...

UCONN rattled off 77 straight wins by double figures from 2008-2010 until the Stanford title game. There's a good chance they'll rebreak that record next season.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

Fun fact: my first WBB game was while I was in high school. South Carolina was number 2 and Louisiana Tech was number 1 and we played in the old Coliseum in Columbia. Kim Mulkey was Tech's starting point guard and they had dual head coaches - Sonja Hogg, who was kind of a figurehead, and Leon Barmore who actually did the coaching.

 

[alexrgct]

UCONN rattled off 77 straight wins by double figures from 2008-2010 until the Stanford title game. There's a good chance they'll rebreak that record next season.

The streak is 90 consecutive wins more than in terms of mov. Consecutive wins by double figures isn't the same. I can live with six points over Stanford and Tennessee (1995) for the NC or one point over Baylor in late 2010 to extend the winning streak to 80 and enable the glorious Florida State game.

Yes, I'm saying MoV matters when comparing La Tech's win streak to uconn's before sdownplaying mov in response to your post. Logically inconsistent of me, but I'm just focusing on what has or hasn't been done by any program at all.

I do agree that Uconn could get to 78 in a row by 10+ points. There is a legit chance of that happening.